Diana’s Dresses

Just a couple of observations about the dresses that I saw yesterday at the Design Exchange. The exhibit runs in Toronto until June 10th, so you’d better hurry if you don’t want to miss it!

The purpose of the exhibit is to raise money for Princess Diana’s charities. I thought it would be interesting to see them close up and personal, as it were. I couldn’t get fantastic pictures of them all, but I thought I’d share the interesting things I noticed with you anyways.

First, this rose silk twill dress with exquisite embroidery. This is just amazing beadwork with embroidery underneath the sequin details. Since I love needlework so much, I thought I’d share a picture of it up close. I couldn’t see inside the garments, of course, which I would have preferred, but I did notice a couple of things that were of interest to me as a seamstress. The first was the intricate work of embroidery on this jacket and bodice on the first gown in the exhibit. There was a teal gown that was covered with hand-sewn sequins, too. I could not imagine having to sew on enough sequins to cover a long-sleeved full length gown. Incredible work.

The second thing that struck me was the hem on many of the dresses. I don’t know where I learned to press hems flat, but I’ve always done that. Then I read recently in Vogue Sewing that hems don’t necessarily get pressed flat all the time, especially if they’re underlined or reinforced with horsehair braid. That was a new idea to me. And then I noticed the hem on this dress. It’s not flat. It’s just folded under and stitched to the underlining, I would guess. There were a few silk crepe gowns that had the soft turned-up-and-stitched hem. I liked the look of it, and so, if I ever have the need to sew a full-length gown, I’ll be sure to underline the skirt so that I can do such a hem.